Benjamin Quotes

[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.

A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contently.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.

Unusually rapid growth cannot keep up forever; when a company has already registered a brilliant expansion, its very increase in size makes a repetition of its achievement more difficult.

All must respect those who respect themselves.

Dog movies nowadays are not what dog movies were 50 or even 10 years ago. For one thing, the dogs have become better actors.

Variety is the mother of Enjoyment.

Truth is not only a man's ornament but his instrument; it is the great man's glory, and the poor man's stock: a man's truth is his livelihood, his recommendation, his letters of credit.

The judge is nothing but the law speaking.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

In the hands of a genius, engineering turns to magic, philosophy becomes poetry, and science pure imagination.

By thinking big, we can transform our world.

Give the clergy your sympathy; don't give them anything else.

It's the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself.

Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything.

Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive.

I quickly convinced myself that the true key to material happiness lay in a modest standard of living which could be achieved with little difficulty under almost all economic conditions.

Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.

An investor calculates what a stock is worth, based on the value of its businesses.

A man, if he be active and energetic, can hardly fail also, be he never so selfish, of benefiting the general public interest.

It should be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.

Death is the sanction of everything that the storyteller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death.

I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and failures...I divide the world into the learners and non-learners.

I prefer law to war under all circumstances.

To see how much a company is truly earning on the capital it deploys in its businesses, look beyond EPS to Return on Invested Capital (ROIC).

One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.

People are best convinced by things they themselves discover.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

In security analysis the prime stress is laid upon protection against untoward events. We obtain this protection by insisting upon margins of safety, or values well in excess of the price paid.

You must always be prepared. Make sure to look at things from all angles. If you are not prepared you will fail.

Idle hands are the devil's playthings.

As the War Office of the United States was established in a time of peace, it is equally reasonable that a Peace Office should be established in a time of War.

Those who laugh often never grow old.

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone.

I rarely drink, I don't smoke, so my vice is probably creating. I'm addicted to creating. And women.

Without dancing you can never attain a perfectly graceful carriage, which is of the highest importance in life.

Temperance in everything is requisite for happiness.

Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.

He that drinks fast, pays slow. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. There can't be good living where there is not good drinking.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.

Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.

The way to be safe is never to be secure.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.